After late December, the rebels stopped their westward offensive, and An Lushan sought to proclaim himself emperor in Luoyang. Gao Xianzhi led his troops to retreat to Tongguan. Li Longji issued several imperial edicts to reprimand and question the Eastern Expeditionary Army's defeat. Gao Xianzhi quickly
stated in the table above.
Because Bian Lingcheng was worried that this fiasco would affect his promotion, and because the conflict with Gao Xianzhi intensified, he rushed to report to the emperor of Chang'an, saying that Gao Xianzhi had abandoned Shaanxi Province and returned to Tongguan, handing over hundreds of miles of land to
The rebels also stole and reduced the food gift given to the sergeants.
The real situation is that after the Eastern Expeditionary Army suffered a disastrous defeat at Wulao Pass, it retreated to Shaanxi County with no danger to defend, and there was a shortage of food and grass in the army. It was a wise move to retreat to Tongguan to accumulate strength.
Li Longji was furious after receiving Bian Lingcheng's report. Even though Gao Xianzhi's complaint was made later, he preconceptionally believed that Gao Xianzhi had committed a serious crime and issued an order to Bian Lingcheng to kill Gao Xianzhi in the army.
On the afternoon of December 20, it started to snow lightly in the Tongguan area, and the flying snowflakes were like catkins floating on the shoulders of the soldiers standing guard behind the female wall.
Wearing a cloak and holding an imperial letter, Bian Lingcheng led the knife-hands to the meeting hall of Tongguan City Tower. Facing Gao Xianzhi who was sitting in front of the black leopard screen, he smiled and said: "Marshal Gao, your Majesty has an imperial edict for you."
Gao Xianzhi hurriedly stood up and knelt down to receive the order. He Lingcheng pulled open the yellow silk of the order and read loudly: "My lord! Gao Xianzhi betrayed the divine grace. He was first defeated by Wulao, then abandoned Shaanxi County for hundreds of miles, and now he is greedy for soldiers.
The gift of food has demoralized the army. I have been so kind to you in the past. I have given you officers, titles, and tens of thousands of gold. This is how you repay me? In the memory of you and I, the king and my ministers, I will only punish you. When the day comes, I will send you the letter.
Ask and kill to calm the morale of the army."
Bian Lingcheng closed the letter and immediately ordered to the left and right: "Take Gao Xianzhi to the top of the city and behead him!"
Gao Xianzhi raised his head in shock and anger, and said loudly: "I was defeated and retreated when the enemy was defeated. I deserved to die. There is heaven above and earth below? Are you saying that I stole and reduced the sergeant's rations? It's purely a false accusation!"
Bian Lingcheng laughed coldly: "This is His Majesty's letter. What is His Majesty's intention written on it? You said that His Majesty framed you? Right! Push it out and behead it!"
Li Chengguang and other generals entered the hall? Seeing this, they quickly knelt down and begged Bian Lingcheng: "Border Supervisor Army! It is a taboo for military officers to kill a general on the battlefield. Do you want the Supervisory Army to come to His Majesty to intercede? Let Marshal Gao serve his crime.
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How could Bian Lingcheng be willing to listen? He raised his chin and sat proudly on the commander's seat? He waved his hand and said, "Gao Xianzhi's crime cannot be pardoned? How can I allow you to plead for mercy? Push him out and behead him!"
Gao Xianzhi was escorted out of the meeting hall by swordsmen. A group of generals and soldiers gathered outside the door. Snow fell on the armor on their shoulders. They knelt down and begged: "Marshal Gao cannot be killed? Marshal Gao did not steal the food gift!"
For a moment, all the soldiers on the entire Tongguan City Wall knelt down with their spears in hand, shouting that the marshal was wronged. However, Bian Lingcheng refused to listen, and the famous general Gao Xianzhi died on the head of Tongguan City.
After Gao Xianzhi was killed, Bian Lingcheng felt that his surroundings were full of hostility. He was afraid of being assassinated, so he ordered Li Chengguang to temporarily take charge of the military. He quickly petitioned the emperor to be transferred from Tongguan and back to Chang'an.
Tongguan has no capable general to guard it for the time being. What if An Lushan attacks at this time? He will definitely be able to advance straight in, but this sheep thief is busy proclaiming himself emperor.
Is the city of Chang'an in danger? People are panicked? Li Longji decided to appoint Ge Shuhan, the governor of Longyou, who was recovering at home. He ordered him to lead the newly recruited soldiers from Guanzhong and mobilize all the guards and horses from the garrison in Beijing, including part of the Longwu Army and the Yulin Army.
A total of 200,000 people were sent to Tongguan to garrison against the rebels. The emperor had bet all his treasures on him alone.
Ge Shuhan originally declined due to serious illness, but the emperor repeatedly issued decrees and awarded him the title of Ping Zhangshi under the Zhongshu Men and the Youpu She of the Shu. He also appointed his old subordinates from Longyou, Tian Xingqiu, as his deputy, and Wang Sili as the commander of the horse army.
Li Chengguang was the commander of the infantry. Under the emperor's kindness, the veteran general had no choice but to ride out. Li Longji personally gave him a farewell and ordered hundreds of officials to see him off in the suburbs.
As an aside, this is the third general among the generals of the Xuanzong Dynasty to enjoy this kind of treatment, besides An Lushan and Li Siye. One of the first two has already raised an army to rebel, and the other has too many troops, causing the emperor to
He was too worried to call him to lead his troops into Guanzhong.
After Ge Shuhan led his army to Tongguan, the first thing he did was to intercept false information and frame his old enemy An Sishun for secretly making money to An Lushan.
Although An Sishun and An Lushan were cousins, their positions had always been different. Long before An Lushan's rebellion, An Sishun had repeatedly complained to the emperor, pointing out that An Lushan had evil intentions, but Li Longji did not listen. So An Lushan
After the Lushan rebellion, Li Longji successively killed An Lushan's eldest son and dozens of his cronies in Chang'an. However, he trusted An Sishun and ordered him to return to Beijing to serve as the Minister of Household Affairs. Now his brother Shuhan devised a plan to falsely accuse An Sishun.
, the emperor was not trustworthy. But Ge Shuhan was in charge of the military power in Guanzhong, and the emperor needed to rely on him to lead the troops to victory, so he had no choice but to agree to death An Sishun and his younger brother Anji Zhen, and exile their relatives to Lingnan.
Among them, Ge Shuhan's confidant general Wang Sili secretly planned this. Wang Sili and Longyou general suggested Ge Shuhan to list Yang Guozhong's crimes in detail and submit a memorial to ask the emperor to kill Yang Guozhong, imitating the strategy of the Han Dynasty to Annihilate the Seven Kingdoms. Although Ge Shuhan
Without doing so, these rumors among the Tongguan Army leaked to Yang Guozhong's ears.
Because Ge Shuhan had recently unjustly killed An Sishun, Yang Guozhong was worried, so he wrote to the emperor and asked to recruit 10,000 elite troops to station in Ba, led by his confidant Du Ganyun. On the surface, he was to guard against the rebels, but in fact
It was to guard against Ge Shuhan. Ge Shuhan knew it well, so he petitioned the emperor to bring this army under his command, and also designed to kill Du Qianyou. This made Yang Guozhong and Ge Shuhan suspicious of each other and full of conflicts.
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At this time, Yang Guozhong must have been desperate. There were rumors in the government and the public that An Lushan was the one who forced him to rebel. Not only did An Lushan act as a Qing emperor, but Li Siye and Ge Shuhan in the Hexi feudal town also intended to force the emperor to kill him.
The first year of this Chinese catastrophe passed, and An Lushan proclaimed himself emperor in Luoyang in the new year. His country was named Dayan, and his reign was named the first year of Shengwu.
However, shortly after An Lushan proclaimed himself emperor, Wu Wangzhi, the governor of Dongping, and the governor of Jinan jointly launched an army to resist the rebels. People in various counties and counties who were unwilling to join the rebels responded one after another. Yan Zhenqing, the governor of Pingyuan, recruited tens of thousands of soldiers to rise up bravely. Many counties in Hebei began to bring order to the chaos.
As the leader of the alliance, Yan Zhenqing made an appointment to fight against the bandits and wait for reinforcements from the court. Then Yan Gaoqing, the prefect of Changshan, raised an army to kill Li Qincuo, the adopted son of Anlu Mountain, and contacted the counties to start a resistance. Guo Ziyi led his army to defeat the rebel general Gao Xiuyan one after another in Hedong.
Jingbian Army.
Xuanzong was overjoyed when he heard about it. He thought that the rebel forces were gradually declining, so he had the idea of recovering the eastern capital. He ordered Ge Shuhan to leave Shaanxi County and attack Luoyang.
Ge Shuhan knew that he had a large number of recruited troops and very weak combat effectiveness. Moreover, the rebels concentrated most of their troops on the Tongguan line. As long as he held on to Tongguan, Anlu Mountain would be unable to advance westward, and the army's morale would naturally be weakened, and it would be defeated in the long run.
Ge Shuhan presented his plan to the emperor, but Yang Guozhong believed that Ge Shuhan had refused to march at Tongguan for a long time because he had other ideas or wanted to force the emperor to kill him. The contradiction between the generals and the ministers made Li Longji prefer Listening to biased beliefs creates doubts in the mind.
An Lushan gave the task of attacking Tongguan to his general Cui Qianyou. After Cui Qianyou took office, he led thousands of sick and weak soldiers to call for battle at Tongguan every day. Ge Shuhan did not move, and Yang Guozhong's eyes and ears in Tongguan reported the matter back to Chang'an.
Yang Guozhong spoke in front of the emperor about the decline of the rebels. Li Longji also believed it and believed that the time had come to counterattack on the frontal battlefield. He issued several imperial edicts to force Ge Shuhan to go out and fight the rebels.
Can Ge Shuhan disobey? He can't. He has Wang Zhongsi's loyalty, but he doesn't have Wang Zhongsi's character. Tianbao's tragic victory at the Stone Castle in ten years has foreshadowed his fate today.
Under the urging of the imperial edict, he cried and led his army out of the pass. The rebel general Cui Qianyou first faked defeat with skirmishers and led the Tang army into the canyon in the Xiyuan Mountains of Lingbao. He killed countless people with rocks and arrows on the top of the mountain. Ge Shuhan They urgently ordered the felt carts to open the road in front. The rebels lit a large number of straw carts and pushed them down the valley. Suddenly, thick smoke filled the air and blocked the road. The Tang army fired arrows indiscriminately. Only when it got dark did they realize that they had been tricked. Cui Qianyou sent elite cavalry from the Yellow River again. From the west, he went around behind the Tang army and attacked Ge Shuhan. The Tang army was defeated and a chaos broke out. The soldiers threw themselves into the Yellow River one after another, and countless people drowned.
Ge Shuhan and some soldiers escaped by climbing onto a grain transport boat on the bank of the Yellow River and escaping to the other side. He fled back to Tongguan early the next morning, but was kidnapped by the general Huo Ba Guiren and others. He surrendered to the rebels and was arrested. Escorted to Luoyang.
The news of Ge Shuhan's defeat came back to Chang'an. Late at night, Gao Lishi hurried to Li Longji's bed and said: "Your Majesty, something bad has happened! Ge Shuhan was defeated at Tongguan and Chang'an was in danger. Please call your Majesty to summon the civil and military officials to retreat." Take shelter in Shu for a while!"
The entire Daming Palace was in chaos. The emperor summoned Yang Guozhong and Wei Jiansu, and ordered the Longwu Army to guard Luan Jia. He notified all the sons who should be notified. The concubines and maids packed their packages and boarded the vehicles. Those who did not have cars had to follow. Running behind the team, cries came from the corners of the palace from time to time.
Prince Li Heng seemed to have been well prepared. The chariots and chariots had been set up outside the Sixteenth Prince's Residence and the East Palace. The Sixth Army of the East Palace under his command had also been organized into a marching formation, taking the initiative to act as the forward and rear guard of the emperor's fleeing team.
Li Longji tremblingly walked out of the palace with the support of Yang Yuhuan and Yang Guozhong. He looked back reluctantly at the sunset on the eaves of the Chengxiang Hall of Daming Palace. This is the palace where he has lived for half his life. When he comes back in the future, , it must be depression and decadence, things have changed and people have changed.
Prince Li Heng knelt in front of the chariot and crossed his hands and said: "I would like to ask my father to board the dragon chariot quickly. I am willing to lead the Qingdao of the East Palace to guide my father in the front!"
After Li Longji sighed, he gave Li Heng a rare compliment: "My son is very careful and has lived up to my expectations. I will leave the travel arrangements to you and General Chen Xuanli. You can discuss it."
After saying that, he and Concubine Yang raised their legs to get into the car.
"Here," Li Heng quickly raised his hands and said, "Father, there is one more thing..."
He naturally knew what the prince wanted to say, so he immediately turned to Gao Lishi, who was standing beside him, and said: "Immediately prepare the imperial pen, yellow silk, and write a letter instructing Li Siye to be the Pingzhangshi under Zhongshu Menxia, and also the envoy of the four towns, and lead the army to Hexi.
, Anxi, Beiting, Longyou people entered the pass to fight against the thieves. From the day when the imperial edict was issued, all military and political officials in the four towns of Longyou Road were appointed, prepared, recruited, and rewards and punishments came from it."
"Here," even Gao Lishi, who had never expressed his emotions or anger, had a slight smile on his lips.
Yang Guozhong stood aside and quietly looked up at the emperor. He seemed to want to say something, but he pursed his lips in frustration.